GIVE KILLERS AND RAPISTS RIGHT TO VOTE

Outrage as SNP-led Holyrood committee calls for a ballot box in every prison and demands:

PRISONERS in Scotland’s jails would be given the right to vote under plans being drawn up by MSPs.

An SNP-led Holyrood committee is set to recommend allowing all inmates to vote – meaning killers, rapists and other serious criminals would no longer be barred from the ballot box.

The plans even outline a move for polling booths in the grounds of all prisons to end the ban on voting, which the MSPs say breaches criminals’ human rights.

Lifting the ban without exceptions would mean prisoners such as depraved serial killer Peter Tobin would be entitled to a say in Holyrood and council elections.

Last night, victims’ campaigner John Muir, 78, whose son Damian was stabbed

to death in 2007, said: ‘It is an obscenity that this is even being considered and an insult to all victims of crime.

‘My son’s civil liberties died with him on the street – why should someone who has committed murder, or carried out a brutal rape, be afforded the privilege of being able to vote?’

The Mail has seen a copy of the executive summary of the report by Holyrood’s equalities and human rights committee, due to be released on Monday.

It says: ‘On the basis of the evidence we received on electoral administration, the relationship between voting and the purpose of prison, democracy and human rights, the majority of the committee believes all prisoners serving custodial sentences should be entitled to vote.’

Latest figures show there are 6,093 offenders in the prison estate, with a further 1,168 awaiting trial and 280 awaiting sentence.

Last night, a well-placed source said: ‘It’s hard to believe MSPs on the committee think it’s right that people who commit some of the most horrendous crimes be given a say in how our country is run.

‘Most people will completely oppose a change in the law. It will strike them as perverse that Holyrood’s top human rights priority is putting a ballot box in every prison.

‘The proposal doesn’t even distinguish between violent and non-violent offenders. Peter Tobin would get to play a part in choosing the next Scottish Government. Who in their right mind thinks that’s a good idea?’

Tobin, 71, was jailed for the murder of Angelika Kluk in 2007 and was later convicted of killing Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol.

Currently, only prisoners on remand can participate in elections. But for General Elections that will extend to those on temporary licence and under home curfew following a deal between the UK Government and the Council of Europe.

Powers over Holyrood and local elections are devolved to the Scottish parliament, with the UK Government deciding who can vote in General Elections.

The committee, which is chaired by senior Nationalist MSP Christina McKelvie, is now to ask the Scottish Government for an estimate of how many Scottish inmates would be eligible under the UK Government’s approach.

The committee estimated 1,118 prisoners would register – but only 112 would vote.

The MSPs acknowledged ‘the views of communities’ but said these must be balanced against ‘ensuring prisoners, many of whom have experienced trauma and abuse, are treated with dignity and fairness’. But they admitted their evidence sessions ‘did not hear directly from victims of crime’.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled blanket voting bans non-compliant with Article 3 of the first protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. This requires contracting states to ‘ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature’.

The UK Government provoked anger last year by scrapping the blanket ban on prisoner voting.

But the committee’s proposals go much further in recommending that all inmates should get the right to vote.

In September last year, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘It would be for the Scottish parliament as a whole to consider prisoner voting.’

Last night, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Scottish parliament’s equalities and human rights committee is currently taking evidence on the issue of prisoner voting in relation to Scottish parliament elections from a wide range of justice and elections representatives.

‘We await the conclusion of that work and will respond to any recommendations the committee makes in due course.’

The Scottish Prison Service said that its job was to implement whatever policy was decided by the Government.

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